1. Zotero. Keep all you references handy. Add more by “harvesting” bibliographic info from websites (like Amazon, Google Scholar etc.). Insert references into any document and by the click of a button add bibliography or change referencing format. Just as all open source software, there is plenty of information online on how to get started, see for instance this Zotero guide. Amazing!

2. LimeSurvey. A free tool you can use to create online surveys (they can also easily be printed). The basic results are immediately visible, and if you want to do regressions etc. LimeSurvey exports to the most common statistics programs (also as free and open software). Fantastic!

3.RQDA. A software that enhances and facilitates qualitative research. RQDA lets you work with text documents (for instance transcribed interviews) and code them. Then you can sort your coded text fragments and analyze or even make a quantitative analysis of them. Wonderful!

These were just a few of those mentioned, but on my top list to download (I am already using Zotero).

Thanks for this post! I don’t really need research software for anything, but I’m happy to share opensource resources with people far and wide. I also want to ad Ubuntu operating system to this list. I had been planning to go Linux for over ten years and only just did so last year. I am kicking myself for procrastinating. I am learning so so much and appreciating all the fun tweaks. I’m looking forward to getting more involved in an open project or two in this new year.